Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Another Aprilia double at Misano

250cc

Reigning 250cc world champion Jorge Lorenzo took another step towards the 2007 world title with his eighth victory of the season, at Misano, on Sunday.

Home hero Andrea Dovizioso stole the lead from Lorenzo into turn one, and the Spaniard was later briefly bumped down a further position by arch-rival hector Barbera.But the #1 soon regrouped and began a thrilling dice with Dovizioso, which ended prematurely when Dovi's Honda ground to a halt with mechanical problems.

Lorenzo was unchallenged thereafter, with KTM team-mates Hiroshi Aoyama and Mika Kallio overcoming Barbera to battle for the runner-up position. That battle also ended early, in spectacular fashion, when Kallio suffered a huge highside.That allowed Barbera to regain the final podium position, but only after holding off class rookie Thomas Luthi and home star Alex de Angelis at the line.

Lorenzo, set to join Italian legend Valentino Rossi in the factory Yamaha team next year, celebrated his win by dressing as a Roman Gladiator - complete with helmet, body armour and sword! The Fortuna Aprilia rider is now 54 points ahead of Dovizioso in the title chase, with five rounds remaining.

125cc

Mattia Pasini has taken his third victory of the 2007 125cc season with a dominant home win in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano

Pasini took the early lead from third on the grid, then recovered after being bumped down to fourth to make a clear break by the halfway stage of the 23 laps.

The Italian, whose world title hopes were smashed by an appalling run of bad luck earlier in the year, went on to take Aprilia's 100th 125GP win by 4.774secs - while a furious four-rider fight for second ended with three of them on the floor!

Pole sitter Lukas Pesek was the first to go, after falling on his own, leaving Simone Corsi and world championship leaders Gabor Talmacsi and Hector Faubel to fight for the remaining podium places.

With two laps to go, Talmacsi edged inside team-mate Faubel, who then clipped the back of Corsi - bringing them both down. Talmacsi was thus left to collect second place and the world championship lead, by 10 points, while Corsi was out on the spot and Faubel out of the points.